Cyprus Airways notches up £8.8 million profit for 1999

CYPRUS Airways (CY) yesterday announced preliminary group pre-tax profits for 1999 of £8.8 million compared to a record £10 million in 1998.

However the group’s operating profit totalled only £2.3 million compared to £12.7 million in 1998, while income in 1999 totalled £147 million, slightly up on 1998’s £146.2 million.

CY said the loss in operating profit was due to increased maintenance costs, fuel prices and depreciation.

During last year, CY — in order to offset a million pound loss in the first six months — sold 30 per cent of its shareholding in Equant NV, an international communications network services company, which brought in a profit of £2.3 million.

In December the airline sold more Equant shares to bring in a further £2.3 million to add to profits.

According to CY, its duty free shops at Larnaca and Paphos Airports brought in revenue of £37.4 million last year compared to £31.2 million in 1998.

The airline’s charter firm Eurocypria recorded a profit of £1.3 million last year compared to £2.2 million in 1998.

CY shares fell two cents to £1.49 yesterday while an April 1 deadline to disperse at least 25 per cent of its shares to the public is fast approaching. At present less than 20 per cent is free-floating on the market.

The airline’s board has sought to dilute and restructure state shareholding by proposing a rights issue of 50 million new shares to shareholders at a ratio of one for every ordinary share held and at an exercise price of 50 cents.

The proposal will have to be ratified by the House.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.